The Daily Breeze's Sam Gnerre looks at the way we were in the South Bay

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Improved Order of Red Men

The Improved Order of Red Men, Sequoia Tribe No. 140 lodge in San Pedro. March 2011 Breeze photo.

The Improved Order of Red Men’s roots can be traced back to the 1760s, when it was one of several secret groups such as the Sons of Liberty that formed in the years before the American Revolution. (It was members of the Sons of Liberty that dressed up like Native Americans and dumped tea in the harbor at the Boston Tea Party.)

After a meeting at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia in 1813, several of the still-functioning patriotic groups came together as the Society of Red Men. The name was changed at an 1834 meeting in Baltimore to the Improved Order of Red Men, the name still used today.

This 1889 certificate, or “Redmens Diploma Legendary & Historical Chart” for the Society of Red Men, was given to new members of the fraternal group. (Click to enlarge image.) Source: Library of Congress.

A Grand Council in 1847 in Baltimore united the group nationally, and it continued to grow well into the 20th century. Branches were active in the Los Angeles area in the 1890s, including one in San Pedro. In 1915, Sequoia Tribe No. 140 moved into a former public library building at 543 Shepard Street in San Pedro after converting it into a 3,190-square-foot lodge.

The Red Men drew many of its rituals and terms from the Iroquois Tribe as a sign of respect, not ridicule. Members refer to its American Craftsman-style building overlooking the Pacific Ocean between Gaffey and Pacific streets as a “wigwam.” Meetings, called pow-wows, are opened by banging a tomahawk on the podium instead of a gavel. Groups are called tribes, the leaders are named after great chiefs such as Sachem, Saamore and Incohonee and secret passwords and signs are used during meetings.

Though one does not have to be a Native American to join, members in the past had to wear Native American regalia at the time of their adoption into the tribe.

In June of 1915, over 5,000 people attended an Improved Order of Red Men pow-wow at Point Fermin following a parade through the San Pedro business district. The drill team from Sequoia Tribe No. 140 won first prize in the parade. Other events in the two-day festivities included a sacred concert, speeches by various Great Chiefs of the Red Men, a barbecue, and three three-round boxing matches.

The Improved Order of Red Men claimed to have 500,000 members across the country in the 1930s, but, as with many fraternal organizations, membership has dipped in recent years. The entry in the latest version of the reference source Associations Unlimited states the current nationwide membership of the Waco, TX-headquartered Great Council of U.S. Improved Order of Red men at 15,251.

Ebbing membership rolls led to a crisis for the Sequoia Tribe’s San Pedro lodge in November 2002.The local chapter had become inactive in the early 1990s, and the unoccupied building nearly was sold for $350,000 to a bidder who wanted to turn it into a private residence.

Local preservationists led by Liz Schindler and Julian Jimenez alerted the state Red Men organization, which blocked the sale. But in order to save the building, it became necessary to re-activate the group’s charter, which meant that Schindler, Jimenez and the rest of the 50 new members had to re-learn the Red Men ways and re-establish its female auxiliary group, the Degree of Pocohontas.

According to Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn’s account, the new members drew the line at donning Native American garb and headdresses. “We do have some rituals. But I can’t tell you about them,” Schindler told Littlejohn at the time.

The community effort to save the Red Men building was successful. On April 29, 2003, the city of Los Angeles designated the hall as Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument #751, which makes altering or tearing down the original structure much more difficult to do.

The current re-constituted group continues to be active in the community, holding fund-raisers and other events at the venerable lodge to support Alzheimer’s research, one of the Improved Order of Red Men’s chief charitable causes.